Darabukka
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The Darabukka is a single-headed goblet drum that is popular throughout the Arab world. The bottom of the drum is open, and, in this Egyptian example, the drum-maker has used nails and glue to attach the skin to the drum body. You hold the darabukka under one arm, or rest it on your legs, whilst playing on the drum head with your fingers.
| Family |
| Percussions |
| Pitch range |
| None. |
| Material |
| Pottery, wood, or metal, with a skin head. |
| Size |
| Variable. |
| Origins |
| Goblet drums like the darahukka were in use in the temples of Babylonia and Sumeria (modern-day Iraq) as long ago as 1100 B.C. The instrument is now common across the Arab world of the Middle East and North Africa. |
| Classification |
| Membranophone: an instrument that produces its sound by the vibration of a stretched skin. |
| And also... |
| The darabukka has been employed in western orchestral music by certain celebrated composers, such as the European contemporaries Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) of France and Carl Orff (1895-1982) of Germany. |
